GARY (Romain). The Roots of the Sky. Novel. Paris: Gallimard, [1956]. — In-8, 203 x 139: 443 pp., (2 ff.), printed cover. Dark blue half-maroquin with corner pieces, decorated ribbed spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (contemporary binding). First edition of one of Romain Gary’s finest novels, which won the Prix Goncourt. The story follows Morel, a former member of the Resistance, in his struggle to save the elephants in French Equatorial Africa in the 1950s. His environmental struggle, initially a solitary one, becomes political, intertwining his commitment with the tensions of decolonization. In this work, Gary explores the conflicts between idealism and reality, the loneliness of men in search of meaning, and the commitment to a cause that transcends them—a quest for symbolic immortality in a rapidly changing world. One of 80 copies printed on Lafuma-Navarre pure-fiber vellum (No. 68), the only large-format edition following 15 copies on Dutch vellum. A fine copy. Spine slightly worn.